by Guitarist Christi Green

My first blog post wasn’t going to be about anything relating to computers but you don’t always get to pick the timing of certain things.

Back in the ‘80’s when I was in undergraduate school I first learned that it was possible to actually own your own computer. I immediately saw the potential of what this could do in my life! I was teaching for the College of Idaho and Northwest Nazarene University (College at that time), and Apple had a teacher buy program that I qualified for.

In the 80’s you didn’t just whip out one of a half dozen credit cards from your wallet and go buy what you wanted; you actually went to a bank! So, with great enthusiasm I went to a banker I was familiar with to present this wonderful idea I had about purchasing a computer and how it would grow my business. I returned couple days later, after he had time to evaluate my application. The answer? NO! I couldn’t believe it! I wasn’t turned down because I couldn’t repay the loan but because he didn’t believe the computer industry would ever take off! Eventually, I ended up borrowing the the money from my parents and soon my apartment was filled with the sounds of my Image Writer dot matrix printer whirling across the white paper that was roller fed from a giant box of paper living under my desk.

I stuck with Apple through the lean times after Jobs was ousted, even though most of my colleages were jumping ship and going to the ‘dark side’. As history proved, with the return of Jobs to Apple, the company soared beyond imagination.

Over the last 25 years I have written books and music, created lesson materials recorded audio and video, created business documents and data bases, websites and the like. My house is filled with Apple products, iPhones, iPads, iPods, desktops, laptops, and of course my first computer: the Mac SE.

Without the creative vision of Steve Jobs I know I wouldn’t have liked computers. He made it possible for all of us to just sit down and create. Everything was easy and visual right from the start.

Like Edison and the lightbulb, generations will use Job’s technology without much thought and consider it a given, but those of us who have been there from the beginning will continue to marvel at the man who changed the world.